Transcripts introduced at a bid-rigging trial reveal troubling details about how some project bidding is handled.

THE STAKES:

The easy fix would be to pass legislation requiring full disclosure in the process.

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The trial of former SUNY Polytechnic Institute president Alain Kaloyeros and three upstate developers is far from over. But even before a verdict comes in, the bid-rigging trial has produced some eyebrow-raising disclosures — including the following statement, as reported Saturday by the Times Union's Robert Gavin:

"Some companies aware of state rules utilize their knowledge to bully state agencies," Joseph Schell, an attorney who handled procurement matters for the Fort Schuyler Management Corp, told its president, Alicia Dicks, in a Nov. 27, 2013, email. "(Fort Schuyler) is not obligated by state rules on this procurement, and having been a big hearted husky youth, I have a strong dislike for being bullied."

The alleged "bully" here was Andrew Breuer, president of Hueber-Breuer Construction in Syracuse. After missing a deadline for a SUNY Poly-related "request for proposal" he says he never saw, Breuer emailed Dicks to ask for clarification. Why, Breuer wanted to know, had the RFP not been listed on the New York State Contract Reporter like other SUNY-related bids? The Contract Reporter calls itself "New York's official website of state procurement activity," where "all state agencies, authorities, state universities and public benefit corporations advertise bid opportunities valued at $50,000 or more." It's a reasonable conclusion that a SUNY Poly project might be subject to a rule that applies to "all ... state universities."

Breuer wrote: "Not sure where to take it from here, but I hope you can appreciate my concern for the way this process has been handled."

Whoa. What a bully.

In fact, Fort Schuyler isn't subject to the state's usual procurement rules. But let's set that aside for a moment.

To call an act "bullying" is to label it a transgression with a victim. That's obviously not the case here. It's no transgression to ask for a clarification or to expect agencies to follow the rules.

But the word choice is, perhaps, a telling one. Powerful people sometimes claim victim status to deflect criticism and manipulate others. Used here, the word suggests an organization so irked at being questioned that they protest the questioner's right to approach them in the first place. It's an entitled attitude we might not be surprised to hear from — do we have to say it? — a bully.

And this brings us back to the Fort Schuyler procurement procedures.

SUNY Poly's nonprofit development arm isn't subject to some state procurement laws meant to ensure a fair process. After Kaloyeros' arrest, reform advocates proposed measures to improve transparency in the state's economic development efforts. Among them were the creation of a "database of deals" and a move to return oversight of contracts to the state comptroller's office.

Legislation on these straightforward, common-sense measures passed the Senate this session with overwhelming bipartisan support. But lacking support from Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the bills stalled in the Assembly.